GOP DILEMMA CHEAT-SHEET
In a nutshell:
-If Lott loses his Majority Leader position but remains in the Senate, the GOP keeps its two-seat advantage there, but retains a blight on the party by having Lott remain in the body. Plus, it would further alienate moderates like Chafee, Snowe, Collins, McCain, etc. And it would give the Democrats a serious campaign issue, because it would signal that the Republicans continue to welcome racism with open (white) arms.
-If Lott leaves the Senate altogether (if this happens, Rove will probably have been behind it), then the Republicans will have innoculated themselves on the racism issue to the extent that they can (the damage has been done already no matter what). However it puts them at essentially 50-50 in the Senate, a very tenuous position whereby Chafee&co will have a lot of influence on the situation, and could derail any overly conservative agenda pushed by the Bushies by jumping ship.
-And besides, the GOP might not even be cleansed anyway, if Lott is replaced as Majority Leader by Don Nickles, who has some nasty homophobic statements and positions on his record (he led the charge to block the Hormel nomination a few years back). Bill Frist might appeal more to moderates, but the archconservative base of the GOP would not be happy with that. And Dubya (who doesn't want to follow his poppy's footsteps to one-term-dom) wants to keep his base happy.
No matter what, it will be interesting to see how these next few weeks play out.
In a nutshell:
-If Lott loses his Majority Leader position but remains in the Senate, the GOP keeps its two-seat advantage there, but retains a blight on the party by having Lott remain in the body. Plus, it would further alienate moderates like Chafee, Snowe, Collins, McCain, etc. And it would give the Democrats a serious campaign issue, because it would signal that the Republicans continue to welcome racism with open (white) arms.
-If Lott leaves the Senate altogether (if this happens, Rove will probably have been behind it), then the Republicans will have innoculated themselves on the racism issue to the extent that they can (the damage has been done already no matter what). However it puts them at essentially 50-50 in the Senate, a very tenuous position whereby Chafee&co will have a lot of influence on the situation, and could derail any overly conservative agenda pushed by the Bushies by jumping ship.
-And besides, the GOP might not even be cleansed anyway, if Lott is replaced as Majority Leader by Don Nickles, who has some nasty homophobic statements and positions on his record (he led the charge to block the Hormel nomination a few years back). Bill Frist might appeal more to moderates, but the archconservative base of the GOP would not be happy with that. And Dubya (who doesn't want to follow his poppy's footsteps to one-term-dom) wants to keep his base happy.
No matter what, it will be interesting to see how these next few weeks play out.
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